Criminal acts do not require the victim to "press charges." A government prosecuting attorney decides whether to criminally prosecute the alleged perpetrator.
reply"Pressing charges" is mostly a made up idea for criminal cases. However, prosecuting attorneys may not want to pick up a case if the victim is not cooperating, because it makes the case much harder to win.
It depends on the crime, for murder, sure. But many other crimes, like defamation, stealing, ... requires "pressing charges", among other reasons because it's up to the victim to decide if they were a victim or not.
replyAs an example, maybe the victim owed money to the criminal, and in that case "stealing" of some property could be considered by the victim as an appropriate settlement of the debt.